title: [CyberKnife radiosurgery--present status and future prospect].
abstract: The CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery System is a non-invasive alternative to surgery for the treatment of both cancerous and non-cancerous tumors anywhere in the body, including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas, and kidney. The treatment, which involves the delivery of high doses of radiation to tumors with extreme accuracy, offers new hope to patients who have inoperable or surgically complex tumors or who may prefer a nonsurgical option. To date, more than 95,000 patients have been treated and more than 207 systems have been installed worldwide. The CyberKnife System is a one-of-a-kind device because of the following reasons. First, the CyberKnife System uses image guidance software to track and continually adjust treatment for any patient or tumor movement. This advantage places the system far ahead of other similar treatments. It allows patients to breathe normally and relax comfortably during treatment. Second, some forms of radiosurgery require rigid head frames that are screwed into the patient's skull in order to minimize any head movement. The CyberKnife System does not require such extreme procedures to maintain the head position; instead, it relies on the sophisticated tracking software, allowing for a much more comfortable and noninvasive treatment. Third, unlike some radiosurgery systems, which can only treat tumors in the head, the CyberKnife System has unlimited reach to treat a broad range of tumors throughout the body, including the prostate, lung, brain, spine, liver, pancreas, and kidney. Finally, the CyberKnife System's treatment accuracy is unrivaled. Its ability to treat tumors with supreme accuracy is noncomparable to that of other radiation therapy and radiosurgery systems. The CyberKnife System can essentially "paint" the tumor with radiation, allowing it to precisely deliver treatment to the tumor alone, sparing surrounding healthy tissue.
authors.affiliation: CyberKnife Center, Department of Neurosurgery, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Ryutaro
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nomura
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods